How to Use the Free Altman Z Spreadsheet and Where to Get Technical Help

Altman Z Score Spreadsheet

This is not how to calculate using the Altman Z Score Spreadsheet | Flickr: pellesten

What is the Altman Z Score Spreadsheet?

Here is a free Altman Z score spreadsheet you can download and run in excel. It is an excel spreadsheet requiring the use of macros but will automatically pull data from the internet and let you calculate the Altman Z Score with this free spreadsheet.

The Altman Z Score

The Altman Z score was formulated by a professor in 1968 to predict bankruptcy. You can also read a somewhat current paper by professor Altman which includes his work on the Z score, if you’re into that stuff.

Otherwise, a good concise summary and explanation can be found at Chroma Investing (he has some great stock picks as well).

The Z-score formula may be used to predict the probability that a firm will go into bankruptcy within two years.

Z-scores are used to predict corporate defaults and an easy-to-calculate control measure for the financial distress status of companies in academic studies. The Z-score uses multiple corporate income and balance sheet values to measure the financial health of a company. – Wikipedia

The main problem with the Altman Z formula is that the formula is not suited for many industries. Industries that operate with high leverage, such as radio and utilities will produce a low Z score which equates to a high risk of bankruptcy.

Before you continue reading about Altman Z formula, here is a great resource you can use. Click the banner below to receive an Altman Z spreadsheet.

You’ll get the free spreadsheet immediately with a few extra resources to fill your investing toolbox.

When I run companies such as Entercom Communications [[ETM]], the Z score comes out to 0.42. Even Time Warner [[TWX]] and Waste Management [[WM]] is expected to fail in the near future.

This is why it is important for investors to not just blindly believe that a low Z score predicts the death of a company. Just have to be smart about it.

Download the Free Altman Z Score Spreadsheet

As you can see, it is very easy to use. Simply enter the ticker, click the “Calculate” button and it will automatically calculate the Z score for you.

To download the spreadsheet, you must go to the main page of Old School Value or at the bottom of any page and sign up with your email to receive the free Altman Z spreadsheet along with other free investment spreadsheets.

The list includes nine free spreadsheets, the add-in required to download data from the internet as well as all the installation help material.

The Altman Z score spreadsheet is completely free. You are free to edit, share, link or do anything you want to it.

Premium Spreadsheets

Feel free to check out the free version and then when ready, go to the stock valuation software page and review what you will get with the premium.

The premium version includes several valuation models as well as fundamental analysis data, historical data, charts and competitor comparison features. Just by entering one ticker, you can immediately get all that information on your favorite stock which will save you hours in your analysis.

Yes. The original Z-score from 1968 was to be used for manufacturing companies. He later revised the score because he realized that it was not effective for non-manufacturing companies. And neither versio is meant to predict bankruptcies for financial companies. I think he actually has more proprietary versions now, that he does not release the actual equations for. Is that more clear or did I muddy things up more?

I am looking forward to using your spreadsheet. Thanks again for all the hard work..-= Chroma´s last blog ..Investing Regret =-.

I have downloaded Randy’s SMF excel Add-in to desktop, extracted the file to a folder on the desktop, and installed the Add-in excel file in excel. Do I need to do anything to other excel file, RCHGetelementNumber-Element-Definition? Should I save it somewhere else? etc?

Hi Jae,What did you think of my Multi-Strategy Trade Tracking Journal (MSJ) that I sent you a few weeks ago? We discussed you telling your subscribers that it was available from me and you would receive from me a percentage of each subscription if the user mentioned your code like “Code Jae” when they inquired about my MSJ.

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